


Our reality

by Alx_GG



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Temporary Character Death, M/M, Shiro (Voltron) is So Done, Shiro (Voltron) is a Mess
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:35:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21794653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alx_GG/pseuds/Alx_GG
Summary: After Adam's death, Shiro is tired of being the universe's punching bag and now he'll do something about it even if it means collaborating with the enemy to bring Adam back and everything he has ever lost"I’m not willing to drain entire galaxies but if there is a way, I have to try"(Shiro won't turn evil)
Relationships: Adam/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 18





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> As conmemoration to S8 coming out I'll leave this little chapter of an oncoming fic but I'll come back to it later because I want to focus on my other one  
> Again, Shiro won't be evil but he's definitely fighting back his bad luck
> 
> The first paragraph is based on a small comic I saw on twitter but can't remember the artist atm

He was running in the med bay, frantically searching for the room they told him and he finally found it, he stood before it and caught his breath before he went in, inside there was a man sitting on the hospital bed with bandages and upon seeing him he gave him a warm smile, Shiro couldn’t stop himself and went to hug the man, he cried and screamed, he was alive, he was safe, he was here but the man had yet to talk and when Shiro turned to look at him he saw only a pillow, slowly everything around him began to fade and he recognized his room, he was on his bed and he’d been dreaming about him again, desperation and sadness some came in when he remembered the truth.

Adam was dead.

He curled up against his knees and stayed there a few minutes, finally he stood up and slowly went to his bathroom, splashed his face with water and looked at himself in the mirror, he looked tired, Adam’s loss had dealt a heavy blow on him and there wasn’t a day he didn’t miss him, didn’t regret that their last words were a discussion but he knew that wasn’t the only thing weighting on him but he didn’t want to dwell on it, one thing was already enough and with that in mind he continued to get ready.

The walk to the Bride was automatic for him but fate was still cruel even in his short walk, he found the allure of having the path from the captain’s room to the Bridge having to cross a high-density glass bridge situated at the top of the hangars, he found everyone that crossed took a moment to admire everything below but above all to gaze upon the Black Lion that majestically stood in all her glory but for Shiro it produced a different feeling because like all of them, he could only gaze at it, admire it from afar when only less than a year away he’d been her paladin, had heard her roar deep in his head, had once been chosen worthy of her but now it was all a silent gaze, a deep longing now lost, he looked away and carried on to the Bride.

-

A message came to him, it was from the paladins asking him to please go see them at the meeting room, they’d been discussing plans on their next move after their last failed mission in  Oriande , now they had to face  Honerva and  Lotor’s Sincline.

Shiro felt confusion, had he missed the message informing him they were to discuss their next plan of action? He quickly searched his messages but found he only had an open conversation line with Keith, the rest were his crew on the Atlas and then it dawned to him, why would they tell him? He wasn’t a paladin, not anymore, a pang of sadness washed over him but he pushed it aside, the paladins needed him and he’d be there.

-

_ Go into  _ _ Honerva’s _ _ mind? _

"It’s been a long time since it was only the seven of us in a room together” Coran said and that took Shiro out of his thoughts, it was easy for him to say, he wasn’t the one that got called after they already had the meeting and  _ just wanted to run it by him. _

“Let’s make sure it’s not the last” Keith said with a smile.

They all began to exit the room when Keith spoke again “Alright team, as we said, we take off and make Voltron outside, the Atlas will cover our backs” 

“Wait, outside?” Shiro said “Sam made the main hangar big enough to keep Voltron even at its full height, I would rather you stay inside where it’s safe than outside where any enemy could see you’re vulnerable, the Atlas would have to battle around you, when I went inside the consciousness of the Black Lion for the first time our physical bodies stayed, I don’t see why you must be outside, you’ll essentially be floating and unmoving”

“Shiro is right but we’ll have to move some of the equipment in here to avoid any damage and open the hatch to bring in the lions from their hangars to the main one” Keith said.

“I’ll take care of that, go to your lions and I’ll make sure everything is as it should”

They took the lions outside to join them and then place Voltron inside the hangar, Shiro saw everything from the bridge looking towards it.

“Shiro, we are in position,” Keith said through his intercom.

“Copy that, we’ll be here,” Shiro said and then moved to the Bridge.

“Crew, I think we deserve a rest,” Shiro said and everyone looked at him in disbelief.

“The paladins will stay inside Voltron until they find the answers they seek, meanwhile we have no set course, so clout the Atlas and take your data pads with you, come immediately if the sensors detect an enemy but otherwise, we too need to rest” His crew still looked at him in disbelief but did as they were told and entered the Atlas in stealth mode, now they were safer.

Shiro saw his crew out but once they left he didn’t cross the bridge again, he went back into the Bridge and to his station where he closed his eyes and focused on something he hadn’t wanted to but knew he needed, his clone’s memories and above all, his memory of a white lion.

The Bridge of the Atlas glowed blue the way it did when they first transformed and suddenly, he heard a roar, when he opened his eyes, he saw outside the glowing windows an enormous lion looking in before it pounced towards him.

Shiro gasped but knew he had to hold his ground and the lion stopped and roared in his face, his body began to glow and he gasped when he felt something coming out of him before he collapsed against his controls, he looked up and gasped when he saw himself in front of him but he was as blue as the cabin and the eyes were different, it was his clone, he and the clone had been merged yet Shiro hadn’t wanted to reach into his memories and felt guilty over everything.

“I’m sorry” He said to him “I know is not enough but I am so sorry, for taking your body and denying you,”

His clone smiled at him “It wasn’t your fault, you had no control over it and I know how you feel, I was inside and I am a little bit like you after all,” Both sighed and then laughed at their joined action before their faces went somber.

“We don’t want to say it, right?” Shiro said.

“It’s easier to blame ourselves than to be pointing at others,” His clone said.

“The paladins” Both said.

“I attacked them, so I can’t completely fault them,”

“No, you were controlled, they should’ve known you were not being you,”

“Still, I was never one of them, it’s always been you,”

Shiro sighed “And not even that anymore,” His clone made a confused face.

“I was important to them when they needed me but they don’t now,” Shiro explained “So I’m just this ex-paladin, I’m back to just being an authority figure to them instead of a friend and now, I think I’m realizing I never really stopped being that,”

His clone sighed “Even as a different person we still always end up on the wrong end of the stick, don’t we?”

Shiro chuckled “We could’ve activated all of the clones and they would still get beat down by my awful luck,”

“I know what you’re trying to do,” His clone said and Shiro looked up in surprise and gulped “I think it’s only right, we deserve it, go find your happiness,” He said with a smile.

“But what about you? Is there anythi-”

His clone lifted a hand to stop him “I’ll be fine, I’m not longer controlled by the witch, I know what and who I am so I’m not pretending to be you either, I’m at peace, so don’t worry about me and worry about you for once,” His clone said and then walked towards the white lion.

“Wait! What is your name? I don’t want to keep thinking of you as my clone,”

His clone gasped when a warm smile came over him “Ryou” He said before turning back and disappearing into small specs of light.

Shiro was alone once again and he turned to look at the white lion “I know I’m not your chosen one but I still want to ask for your help, the paladins will enter, if they haven’t already, into  Honerva’s mind and I need to go in too,”

The white lion stared at him before his eyes glowed yellow and Shiro could feel it in his head the way he had once felt the Black Lion and he began to feel the entirety of the Atlas just like when he was a paladin, he saw visions of the corridors before it landed on Voltron that was peacefully unmoving, he saw each of the paladin’s faces before he could feel dragged into their shared  consciousness .

The room around him disappeared and soon he was in this channel filled with different lights that was dragging him forwards, the white lion appeared beside him at a regular lion’s size and looked at Shiro and he got its message and took hold of the lion before it took off to their destination, They arrived to a white place, or white foggy place, Shiro wasn’t exactly sure.

“Why are you here? And how is that still alive?”  Honerva’s voice said behind him and Shiro turned around and sure enough there she was, the white lion growling at her.

“When you took the lion’s quintessence to weaken it, it looked for a worthy paladin to save itself and found it in  Ryou , you may know him better as Kuron,”

“Oh yes, my Champion, too bad he’s gone, that still doesn’t explain why are you here, but I should rephrase my question, I know what you’re looking for but I am intrigued as to why are you alone and not with your paladins?” She said with a smirk “You wish to know my plans but something tells me it’s not for the same objective as them, that is the only reason I haven’t killed you in the spot,”

The white lion growled at her.

Shiro stayed silent, thinking over before he finally spoke “I just don’t understand, when we went into the rift it was too much, we had to leave in that moment or we’d be destroyed, no one can survive and we left  Lotor there, your goal was to bring your son back and its done but there is no way he’s still alive yet you keep advancing, I want to know your plan because, it would most definitely involve someone who is gone,”

“Are you suggesting I’m somehow creating a plan to bring back the dead? Very ambitious indeed”

“I died and had my consciousness transferred to the body of my clone, I’ve seen Allura do amazing things with  Altean Alchemy, at this point I’ll believe anything,”

Honerva thought it over, “And if I was, if I did have a plan to bring my son back, are you suggesting you’d help me? Give your back to the universe and your paladins just to, get someone back? This person must be really important for you to take such drastic measures”

“It's not just that, I’m tired of being the universe’s punching bag, I want to find my happiness, I want to stop losing everything I have and still be expected to be grateful but I’m still me, I’m not willing to drain entire galaxies but if there is a way, I have to try, if that isn’t where your plan is heading then I’ll just leave and keep trying to stop whatever it is that you’re doing”

Honerva chuckled “It seems odd you’d try to ‘find your happiness’ alongside the one that has made it so it’s miserable”

Shiro scoffed in return and enjoyed how she lost her smirk “Don’t flatter yourself, I was destined to die much before I even went inside that spaceship and you’ve made me suffer, yes but you are also the reason I’m alive today, if it hadn’t been for you I would be in a wheelchair by now so all your attempts at making my life miserable have only achieved in making me gain even more but I lost it and it wasn’t even because of you,”

“And if my plan isn’t what you expect, you really think I’ll just let you go like that and keep hindering me?” Her hand once again created bolts of dark magic but then the white lion roared so powerfully it pushed  Honerva back.

“Yes, because you won’t be able to kill me,”

Honerva regained her composure “Fine, I won’t tell you my plan but I do plan to have my son by my side, if you wish me to trust you enough to bring you in then the least you can do is let me inside your head, after all you’ve already breached mine without even asking” 

Shiro looked at the white lion before both advanced towards  Honerva and she touched Shiro’s forehead, she saw everything before finally letting him go with a dark laugh.

“Your pain is as big as mine yet you are not willing to sacrifice everything for your cause, you wish to challenge fate without harming it, you’ll never get anywhere like that but I rather have you plotting beside be than against me” She laughed darkly again “I’ll give you my coordinates and if you come I promise I'll give you what you seek”


	2. Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro meets with Honerva  
> A plan is made

Shiro dropped on his knees, his surroundings slowly went back to being on the bridge of the Atlas, he heard light buzzing that soon became agitated voices.

_...lura! _

_...Med... _

Shiro wondered what was  happening.

_ …Unresponsive…  _

_...tain... _

_...Medic... _

_...Allura... _

Allura! Shiro snapped and finally heard the commotion on the comms.

“Captain!” It was Officer Brook’s voice.

“I’m here, what happened?”

“The paladins requested medical attention, it seems Allura is not responding,” His communications officer, Curtis, said and Shiro ran to the bridge and saw as Hunk carried Allura out of her lion and into a stretcher.

“Are we to head back to  out stations?” Curtis asked and Shiro pondered for a moment.

“Allura’s health is top priority now, the paladins surely will brief us soon on their findings so be ready for a meeting, I leave it to each of you to decide where you want to be just be ready when the paladins call us” Shiro said.

“Yes captain,” A chorus of voices said.

“I’ll go see Allura now, if anything happens let me know,” Shiro said and took  of to the med bay, when he arrived Allura was  lying in bed with the paladins worriedly around her.

“How is she?” Shiro asked.

“Her vitals are good but if she’s fine and when she’ll wake up, we don’t know,” Pidge relayed the doctor’s words.

“We need to have a meeting now,” Keith determinately said.

“No,” Shiro interfered, “You just got back from being inside someone’s mind, you all should discuss what happened and then call for a meeting, if we’re lucky Allura might wake up, she may not go but she can give you her  input ,”

“Shiro’s right, Allura was the one that guided us the most through there, we should wait a little to see if she wakes up,” Lance said.

“I lost  sight of you for quite a while, what happened?” Keith asked the paladins, they began to relay their experiences, meanwhile Shiro went beside Allura and sat on her bed, he looked at her unmoving face and slowly placed his hand on her shoulder.

“I can’t thank you enough,” Shiro whispered, his voice easily drowned out by the paladins’ chatter and went unnoticed by them “You gave me a chance to live again, I hope I don’t make you regret it, know I’ll never harm any of you and I’m sorry if my choice makes you disappointed in me. I want to live not just survive, thank you again and know you mean a lot to me not just as my savior but as my friend,” Shiro gave one last look at Allura before he faced the paladins.

“Paladins,” He called them and they stopped their chatter to look at him “I haven’t had the chance, things have been hectic but I just wanted to tell you, I’m proud of you, of sharing your journey in becoming the amazing people you are today,” Shiro said and all the paladins looked at each other in confusion, Hunk was the first one to give an awkward laugh.

“Oh, thank you Shiro but... um, is everything alright?” Hunk looked so unsure and everyone has similar confused looks.

“Yeah, completely, like I said things have been hectic and I haven’t found a right moment and if there is one thing I learned it’s to always take the moment, we never know what may happen,” Shiro tried to sound as nonchalant as possible.

“Nothing” Keith firmly said with a frown from his spot “We do this together, we come out of this together,”

“Hey, it’s ok Keith, no need to get worked up, it's just something I wanted to take off my chest, don’t worry  too much about it,” Shiro placated them and while they still seemed confused, they seemed to have accepted Shiro’s reasoning.

“Take care of Allura, I have something to do” Shiro said and made his way to the door, he gave one last look back at the group that went back to discussing what happened and then left without another word.

“Alright, I’ll just have to find a way to leave without everyone noticing” He heard a roar by his side and the white lion was walking beside him.

“The Black lion? I lost my connection to her and even if I hadn’t, it exactly the worst possible way of transport, how can anyone miss the Black lion leaving the Atlas?” Shiro asked it and the lion just side-eyed him before running to the hangar, Shiro sighed and followed through. Once inside the hangar he saw as the White lion grew from his regular lion size to Black’s size and went inside her, her eyes glowed and suddenly he felt it, it was her  consciousness , her roar, she was back on his mind!

“ Oh, I can hear you!” Shiro sprinted towards her “I’ve missed you! I spent so much time next to you that not feeling you in my mind was terrible,”

The Black lion lowered her head until her nose was nearly touching the ground and Shiro didn’t care that it might look strange but he hugged her nose as much as he could, he  basked on her deep purrs running through his mind, she had missed him too.

“I’m here, I’m back” Shiro said to her, after a moment he let go of her so she could open her mouth, Shiro smiled at the familiar passage and enjoyed each step as he went to the cabin.

“Well, I’m here but I still think this is the least convenient way of sneaking out, you’re not exactly small” Shiro said and then he felt the White lion’s thought in his head.

“Teletransportation? Just me? Can you do that?” Shiro could feel Black nod in his head, he sighed and let go of the controls “Are you sure? Do you know where are you taking me? Where am I going and what I intend to do? You should know, I don’t want to deceive you and it’s entirely ok if you don’t want to,” 

He felt another purr and Shiro was surprised, “Really? I never thought you’d-, don’t you think I’m being... selfish?” He waited for her answer “Oh, wow, I can’t believe it” He sighed “If you weren’t in my head I’d tell you you wouldn’t believe how relieved that just made me, but you do, you know me better than anyone, well anyone alive at least,” He felt another thought and his face went serious “I promise, you have my permission to blast me otherwise,”

He closed his eyes and relaxed per her instruction and remained still until the floor beneath him gave away and his feet landed on a floor.

“Welcome, former black paladin,” Honerva said.

-

“Hi” Shiro awkwardly said as he stood “So, what are we doing now?”

She scoffed, “We’ll continue this way” She moved to another room and Shiro followed “When I searched your mind, there were several ideas on changing past events, on bringing people back, many were idiotic, the quantum realm for time traveling?”

“The what -? oh, those weren’t my ideas, it’s what they use in movies so don’t blame me,” Shiro said.

“It doesn’t matter, idiotic the lot of them but one, while still idiotic, made me think of another possible way,” Honerva entered a room where Shiro could see all kinds of formulas and equations. She reached to a panel and an image showed up, it was just lines of pure light.

“What is that?” 

“Realities, each one of them is a different one,” 

“I still can’t believe Slav was right,” Shiro muttered.

“My plan was to search each one of these until I found a perfect one, where I could live with my husband and son,” Honerva explained.

Shiro gasped and looked at the image, one of those, what if one of those was a reality where he didn’t go to Kerberos, one where there was no Voltron, one where he stayed but met his fate and Adam was left alone and mourning. He could already imagine Adam in his arms again but there was an issue, realities, while similar, where not the same. 

“How do you know we’ll be accepted? You know it’s not the same” Shiro asked.

“They will,”

“You can’t just barge in a reality and demand it takes you in, what if they reject us?”

“I’ll erase  its existence and move on,”

“If that is your plan you know I’ll stop you,” Shiro’ frowned at her.

“Don’t worry black paladin, I thought of something else,”

“What? Why? What changed?”

She gave a sly smile “Why look for one I can fit when I can make my own?”

“What?! A new reality?!”

“These lines contain all the quintessence in their reality, powering all existence within it, I will create a machine that will subtract all the data from it and recreate an exact yet lesser one, every single piece of existence will be reflected onto this new one and it’ll be powered by the original, we can alter the facts inside to what we want and the people will react accordingly to what their original self would do because they are powered directly to their source, their very being,”

“ So, it would be like a live feed, the original reality constantly maintaining what is happening in the other one”

“Exactly,”

“We would be leeching energy from the entire universe, the entire reality, how is that not going to affect others? Every single being would live at half capacity while powering our own, we would be wiping half of the universe’s power, then how would everyone live?”

“This reality is already operating at a lower capacity, in my time as Haggar I extracted the quintessence of entire planets, it’s currently stored in different places through the  Galra empire and with the 10,000 war we created there are less beings populating the known universe, those that stayed behind are already living in a reality with lesser power, the energy living beings would give to keep their counterparts needed for the new reality would be minimum, it’s even relevant for me to make sure they don’t, the paladins have Voltron that is made of a  trans-reality material, we can’t allow them to know,”

“But then this reality needs a source they can get their power from, what if that source is dead? How does that bring back our loved ones?” Shiro saw a gleam on her eyes but it was out in a second

“This line is history and memory, I’ll just bring back all that is them based on the pieces of the past, an uncorrupted husband and a loving son,”

“That, sounds good for me, we would live outside of this reality without compromising others, without having to look for and adjust to another and adjust it to avoid all the bad thing that happened in this one, it sounds almost perfect,”

“It will be but there is still a catch, we need enormous amount of energy to pull this off so I’ll offer you a deal, go to the farthest side of the universe while I gather the materials, don’t hinder me in any way and I will make this a reality, I will give you what you want,”

“Staying still is not my style, giving my back to your actions doesn’t exempt me from them, it makes me just as guilty. I’ll give you another deal, tell me what you need and give me full access and authority to your resources and I’ll retrieve all the materials you need,”

There was complete silence as  Honerva looked at Shiro with distrust.

“You saw how much I want this and you can monitor everything I do. I just ask you to let me do it my way and we’ll both get what we want, you never cared how you got the materials so don’t, let me worry about it” Shiro said.

“It’s inevitable that you’ll have to face your precious paladins, will you be able to carry on with your task?” She said with a devious smile.

“Just give me the list, I’ll worry about that when the time comes”

“Fine, then we have a deal,”


	3. The Pilot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Materials are gathered  
> The Paladins fight a new foe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My only warning is lots of short dialogue with no name so just know it's chaos

Shiro was taken to a room by an altean and clothes were laid on his bed, he looked around and frowned at something in the corner.

“Is it alright if you take that out? I don’t really want it” He said and the servant merely went to retrieve the mirror and silently left.

Shiro sighed and sat on his bed, it took a few seconds for him to finally face the clothes next to him, they were branded with the Galra insignia, it was a Galra uniform completed with a helmet that Shiro disliked but he knew he needed to keep his identity a secret, specially for the paladins.

Honerva had given him his instructions so now all he had to do was retrieve it all, he’d already began to plan how to do so in the fastest and harmless of ways and above all to avoid the paladins as much as he could.

-

“Where is Shiro?” Keith said, they were in the meeting after being in Honerva’s mind yet Shiro had yet to arrive.

“I’ve tried to contact him to no avail, last thing he said to us was that he was going to the med bay to see Allura” Veronica said

“He did went to see her but then left, told us he had things to do,” Lance said

“I’m calling him but he isn’t answering” Keith said.

“Well, sorry Shiro but I will have to spy on you through the cameras” Pidge said and a holo screen appeared and she began to look for him. “Here he is leaving Allura’s room, he seems to be talking to himself”

“He went to the hangars” Lance said and they all watched as the Black lion lit up for him.

“Oh my god! Shiro can still pilot the Black Lion!” Hunk excitedly said “Aw look how he hugs her”

“Shiro couldn’t pilot the Black lion?” Lance asked and Pidge too looked like this was brand new information.

“Shiro’s bond to the Black Lion broke after Allura put him in his body,”

“What?!” Pidge and Lance yelled.

“I thought he was just tired from everything” Pidge said.

“You didn’t know?” Hunk asked.

“No, how did you know?” Lance accused.

“Keith told me” Hunk said and Lance threw Keith a dirty look.

“There was never the time and I just happened to be talking to Hunk when I mentioned it” Keith said.

“Well I can see why he’s so happy, he was the one closest to his lion after all”

“And don’t forget she saved him from dying, the Black lion loves Shiro”

“Wow, I can’t believe he was going through that, he never said a word” Pidge said.

“He didn’t think it was relevant since I could pilot Black” Keith explained.

“It’s not about who could pilot it but the hurt of not feeling worthy anymore, I went through that when Blue didn’t want me anymore but Red took me in immediately and I trusted Allura with Blue” Lance said.

Everyone went silent after that, only just thinking how hurt Shiro was from losing his connection to Black.

“Well at least he has it back, somehow” Pidge said looking at the video feed.

“What is he doing now?” Keith asked.

“I don’t know, he went inside the Black lion and hasn’t come out” She answered.

“Well I’ll just go knock on its paw and ask for Shiro” Lance

“He’s not there” Keith said after opening his eyes.

“What? How do you know?” Lance asked.

“I connected to Black and saw the cabin, it’s empty” He said.

“Show off” Lance snipped.

“Can we focus on the fact that Shiro once again disappeared? Could he be in the astral plane?” Pide said.

“No, his body would be here” Keith said

“Can’t you use your connection and ask Black where he is?” Lance said, Keith closed his eyes but soon he frowned

“Black isn’t saying anything to me”

“Oh great, Shiro’s missing, again, what do we do now?” Hunk asked

“We carry on out meeting, we need to tell the Atlas crew about our findings and they’ll stay alert on any activity on Honerva, we’ll ask with our allies in the Coalition if they’ve seen Shiro and to look for him, we’ll deploy as soon as they tell us something” Keith said “Now let’s try to keep this meeting quick,”

-

“So, everything clear? No questions?” Keith said once the meeting was over “Good, go back to your statio-”

“We have a wormhole signature!” Veronica said.

“Where?” The paladins ran to her side.

“It’s deep inside the Galra empire, or what used to be it” She said. “Our intel says its a former lab of Haggar but it’s mostly destroyed” His sister told them.

“What could they want there?” Lance wondered.

“It could be equipment, that looks more abandoned than destroyed, I bet some parts could still be used, it was a lab for Haggar’s druids so I wouldn’t brush it aside,” Pidge said

“Alright team, suit up, we need to find out wha are they doing, this is not something we saw in her mind, maybe she’s changed it since she knew we where there. Atlas, stay back and only engage if there is more trouble, keep monitoring for other activity and ask everyone in the Coalition if they’ve seen Shiro and too keep an eye out for him”

“Yes, sir” The crew said and everyone went into position.

-

“The Alteans are loading equipment inside that thing and there’s only one Komar, this looks to easy, I don’t feel right about this,” Pidge said

“I don’t understand” Allura said “In her mind there was nothing about this, she already had everything she needed, why is she doing this?”

“I don’t know but we can’t let her have it, come on team, confiscate that equipment, if you can’t just destroy it, let’s make this quick, I don’t like this either,”

“Yes,”

The lions went full in when a new ship came towards them and began firing at them, they had no choice but to keep their distance.

“Take it down, it’s not letting us close”

“It's to fast for me”

“I can’t hit it”

“The cargo is loaded”

“Charge ahead”

“It’s the ship again”

“Ah!”

“What is that?”

“It’s a smoke screen”

“It’s more than that, it’s creating electric interference, the lion’s censors are all over the place”

“Paladins, this is Veronica from the Atlas, two wormholes were spotted, one on your location and another in the center of the Galra empire”

“They are getting away!”

“I can’t see them or use the sensors, the smoke got goey and it’s stuck”

“We can fly our lions but even they can’t see through the smoke and the goo”

“The wormeholes are gone but there’s activity on the location of second one, more Komars”

“Honerva isn't the type to set up distractions, she's always faced us up front”

"We never could've suspected this, it's just not her way of doing things"

“We need to go there now, Pidge can you take this thing from the lions?”

“Already on it, dad are you watching this?”

“Yes, the solution to dissolve it will be easy to make but you need to bring your lions in”

“The lions will go to the Atlas to get cleaned, Allura we need you to make a wormhole to reach the other location, MFE pilots get ready you are taking us in, Atlas you’ll cover our back and deal as much as you can with the Komars”

“Yes, sir”

-

“What is this place? What are they looking for?” The paladins wondered from their spot in the MFEs

“You guys don’t remember?” This is where Allura got captured when we were just starting out”

“Yes, they stored and sent quintessence here, there were hundreds of bottled quintessence in here, we can't let them take it”

“Hey look, it’s the ship from before, the pilot it’s coming out. I’ve never seen anyone alike working for Honerva”

“I don’t care, this is pure quintessence we have to stop them, Atlas cover our backs, MFE’s take us down, if we have to destroy all of it we will”

The paladins landed on the area and quickly went to the containment zone where the alteans were carrying the quintessente into another shuttle, before they could reach it a figure sprung up upon them, it was the pilot from the other time, the paladins worked hard to take it down but he seemed to always be one step ahead and was more agile and faster than them, soon enough the mysterious pilot had thrown them all in a pile before he took out a device and fired a foam that soon became goo and glued the paladins together.

“I can’t move!”

“What is this?!”

“I think I recognize it, I used it against the guard on Beta Traz”

Keith struggle against it but wouldn’t try to pull out his bayard as a knife in fear of injuring his struggling teammates, he looked up in rage and saw the pilot was just silently staring at them, something caught his attention behind them before he went to catch up on the alteans.

“Paladins, the lions are done” Sam's voice said.

“Call your lions now!” Keith ordered, soon enough the lions went out of their hangars. Pidge used her smaller bayard to cut throught without injuring anyone and they ran to the lions, they charged to the ship still loading the cargo but the komars diverted their fire.

Keith saw an opening and was able to go behind the komars, the last container was in and the last one left to go in was the pilot. Keith charged to him with Black at full speed ready to crash the entire ship, he saw how the pilot saw Black’s shadow and turned in surprise toward them but then Black shut down.

“What are you doing?” Keith moved the controls wildly, “They are getting away!” He grunted.

“Keith! What’s happening?”

“The Black lion is out, I don’t know why” Keith moved the controls again but it was too late.

“Wormhole!”

The alteans and the cargo were out in a second, leaving the paladins dumbfounded and shocked.

-

“I have it, all of it, no casualties and no unnecesarry violence, told you to leave it to me” Shiro said as he went back to Honerva’s main ship.

“I saw, it doesn’t matter, the machine soon will be done, I expect you to be at the main engine when I call you, then we’ll begin


	4. The making

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The paladins deliberate  
> The plan is put on motion

The lions stood still, staring at the space where the wormhole and the alteans had gone and disappeared.

They had failed.

“How-, how could this happened?” Allura finally broke the silence.

“She must’ve changed everything once she knew we knew,”

“Then we are back to square one,”

“We can’t go back, she already knows we can and we’d only find more traps and obstacles,” Allura said.

“Then we need to keep looking for wormhole signatures again and on top of that, Shiro is still missing” Pidge said.

“Keith, you’ve been silent way too much, what should we do?” Lance said.

“I think-, he-, no, it’s nothing, let’s go back to the Atlas,” He said.

“Hey man, don’t keep it to yourself, we are a team,” Lance said.

“Yeah Keith, spill,” Pidge said.

Their leader sighed “When we fought that pilot, it felt like when I battled Shiro’s clone, its moves, its strength, it matched almost perfectly,”

“You don’t suggest?”

“It can’t be,”

“But the timing is very fitting, we’ve never seen it before,”

“It can’t be, Shiro would never betray us,”

“Unless he is a clone,”

“We can’t talk clones when we aren’t sure that pilot is Shiro,”

“I’ll check if they match, I’ll take the footage of each of our helmets and do a simulation on our fight, then we’ll see if the pilot even remotely matches Shiro,” Pidge said.

“Maybe it isn’t him at all, we can’t let theories like that distract us,”

“We have to think something else,”

“Oh no,” Pidge interrupted.

“Pidge? Why did you say that? What does oh no mean?” Hunk nervously said.

“The pilot is taller than Shiro but if we consider its shoes and the size of the armor then the pilot has a very similar constitution to Shiro and like Keith said, it’s fighting style it’s very similar,”

In their screens it showed a recreation of their fight side by side with footage of Shiro and all of them saw the similarities.

“It can’t be, Shiro would never,”

“I don’t believe it,”

“Unless it’s a clone!”

“Hunk, not again, the Shiro that disappeared is our Shiro, the one Allura put back? We saw him and we never separated, it’s the same Shiro,”

“It could be”

“Allura?!”

“You also think Hunk’s right?”

“The body I transfered Shiro to, it wasn’t an empty body, that clone was not... dead, it was just unconscious,”

“Ha! Told you!”

“But then, you’re suggesting the clone took over Shiro’s body?”

“When he left he seemed pretty normal and he never said he felt anything wrong, would the clone just suddenly appear and take over?”

“You think something happened? I mean besides our usual happenings,”

“Adam”

“What?”

“Who’s Adam?”

“Keith, buddy, the comms are pretty good, even a whisper is heard so who’s Adam?”

“Adam was Shiro’s former fiancé” Keith explained.

“WHAT?!” Three voices said.

“Adam as in professor Adam?”

“That Adam?”

“He had a fiancé?”

“Hey yeah, I didn’t see him,”

“Yeah, I don’t think I saw anyone receiving Shiro,”

“That’s because he’s dead,”

A silence took over them.

“But I don’t get it, they broke up before the Kerberos Mission and it’s been years already,”

“Yeah, I remember Matt saying Shiro was staying in his dorm after his boyfriend dumped him, said he didn’t want him to go to the mission and good riddance, why would he hold Shiro back? I didn’t like him but I didn’t know who he was,”

“It was more complicated than that, Adam had his reasons,”

“But then that means the break up wasn’t mutual and Shiro still had feelings for him,”

“Broken up or not, it’s still someone Shiro loved,”

“He was going to marry that guy,”

“How did he die?”

“He was the first fleet that was deployed when the Galra attacked,”

“Ouch,”

“Oh no,”

“Guys, are we all realizing Sendak killed Shiro’s ex-fiancé? Sendak? The dude that came to Earth just to get revenge on Shiro?”

“That just made it worse Pidge, thank you,”

“So basically he succeeded and on the first try,”

“I think having his ex-boyfriend killed by his longest enemy is a good reason for him to want to go mad, or at least weak enough to let the clone take over”

“But he knew that since we came back, why didn’t he snap sooner? And we’ve been in space for weeks after we defeated Sendak, why now?”

“What is his goal now? Sendak is dead,”

“Maybe the clone just needed to get control of Shiro’s body, whatever he’s doing is not something Shiro wants,”

“Can Honerva be controlling him?”

“Perhaps but now our focus should be on finding Honerva then, if our theory is proven right, Shiro will be there as well,”

-

Shiro was walking along Honerva’s ship, they’ve been traveling further and further away from Voltron or any known part of the universe that was allied with the Coalition, Shiro knew Honerva didn’t want to give their position away to the paladins and she was still working on whatever machine they needed, according to her, she succeeded and now she had summoned him to the control room, a low growl made him stop, it was the White lion.

“Oh, I see. Honestly I’m not surprised, what should we do then?” Shiro muttered as he carried along.

“I can do that,” He confidently said, he arrived and saw Honerva giving last instructions before she moved them to the attached lab they had created solely for their plan.

“You are to stay,” She said to her second in command “Don’t follow us or try to intercept us, whatever all of you do from now on is your problem” She said, the altean looked shocked but that was the moment Honerva closed the door and applied a sequence of numbers on the controller beside the door. The hissing of steam and the coiling of the machine was heard and that entire piece detached from the main ship with only Honerva and Shiro within.

“You’re just going to abandon them like that?”

“You want them all to come with us? It would be a hassle and they’ll be there in their reflected form, I’m sure they’ll be taken care of by the princess when she finds them,” She said and moved were a panel rose, like the one Allura used when they first met her, with Honerva using both palms of her hands to power it up, right in front of the controls was a giant circle on the floor, it looked really like the Castle of Lion’s main power grid, he remembered about it, it was when Sendak infiltrated and poor Pidge had lost her faithful Rover, however in that moment that panel wasn’t wide opened, yet.

“We’ll have to hurry, this spike in quintessence will surely be caught on Voltron’s radar and they’ll come here,”

Shiro saw as the walls illuminated and showed all the quintessence they had extracted, the machine hummed and soon a light overtook the inside of the room, once it was gone the lateral panels moved and Shiro gasped at what he saw, it was all darkness except for the countless of white and blue glowing lights.

“The realities,” He said in awe.

“Ours is here, I’ll start the process at once,” Honerva said as the circular panel in front of the controller opened up, from it’s sides the ship extended an arm until it carefully got close to the line of their reality but didn’t touch it, instead it created a circle around it, on the other side of their ship another arm extended and created a circle yet this one was empty.

The walls with the quintessence began to lower its levels as Honerva began to use them, the circle around their reality began to spin and glow as it began to take the information, in the opened circular area in the middle it created a white sphere of light as it redirected the energy and information into the other arm and slowly it began to copy the reality, it was a small and thin line but it was working.

Honerva moved away from the controls “It’s time for us to wait for the process to be ready, soon everything I want will be there...”

Shiro slowly backed away from Honerva.

“...and everything I hate will be gone, starting with you!” Honerva quickly turned as a bolt of black magic launched itself to Shiro, he used his mechanical arm with the princess’s crystal to repel it.

“What are you doing? I thought we wanted the same thing,” Shiro said from behind his arm.

“You really thought I wouldn’t take this opportunity? To use all the quintessence from this reality to make a new to my liking, with no voltron or paladins, you were just a tool to gather the materials...” A strange glint came to her face “...all of them,”

Shiro laughed from behind his arms.

“You really thought I’d trust you?” Shiro said when the White lion jumped on Honerva but merely passed through her, the distraction was enough and Shiro lounged at her and tried to throw her away from the controls but she soon attacked back, Shiro protected himself with his arm when a second growl was heard and both saw from the corner of their eyes as the White lion came back full speed, both expected the lion to pass through them so their focus stayed on each other so it was a shock for both when the White lion did collide with Honerva and threw her to the sphere of light and energy in the middle.

Shiro was dumbfounded but soon the White lion was beside him as well as the creaking of the ship, without Honerva controlling the machine and the bolts of energy she released it was starting to fail, that and the fact she was going to end their reality.

“What now?” Shiro yelled, “Alright, I’m on it”

He went to the panel and placed his hands the same way she had done, the crystal on his arm once again helping him control it, meanwhile the White lion had entered the controls directly. Shiro stood his ground even if some of the inner structures collapsed but fortunately nothing that endangered the structure of their ship, soon the circles spinning around their reality and the newly forming one starting spinning the other way.

A thing line starting from the orb of light were all realities began started to grow, it took a long while for Shiro to finally see it as it approached their time period, the thin line grew thick and now it looked exactly like a normal line a few spaces before it finally reached the spinning circle.

“So we are moving along it?” Shiro thought in wonder when the White lion came out of the controls, the movement of the ship was incredibly slow but it was creating his make-shift reality in time of the real one. The White lion looked at him and Shiro understood, he took a deep breath before he nodded.

The White lion grew in size and Shiro felt it pull him inside of it, white started to flow his vision before he finally closed his eyes and let the White lion pull him to their reality.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The White lion speaks directly to Shiro's head so yeah, I didn't put any dialogue on it  
> Hope you enjoyed!  
> Up next we'll see what changes happened in Shiro's reality ;)


	5. New Reality

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro arrives at his destination, is it what he always wanted?

He opened his eyes slowly, the sight that welcomed him was of the worried paladins, this was familiar to him.

“Shiro are you alright?”

All of them looking at him, the sky, the lions.

“Where are we?” Shiro asked

The paladins looked at each other “We’re not sure, Lotor brought us here”

“Lotor?” His eyes flew opened and he sat up “Is he alive?!”

“Shiro!” Keith caught him when his vision blurred for a moment.

“We believe he isn’t” Allura said, her gaze unreadable “We used the castle to overload his Sincline when he opened the rift and it exploded”

“We went through the rift?” Shiro asked

“No! Too dangerous!” Coran appeared in his line of sight.

“So, we are three years back, no, almost four” He stood up

“Shiro! You just got into this body!” Keith worriedly said.

“No! I’m fine, I’m perfect, this is good, we just need to head back to earth!” He staggered for a moment but he finally was up

“Earth?”

“We haven’t thought of a course of action, you are now our priority” Keith pointed out and stood wearily on his side, hands out if he needed to stabilize him.

“Yes, we need to recover, we lost the Castle of Lions, we need to regroup and Sam already, ah, he probably already has begun on the enforcement of earth and besides, we deserve it, we’ve saved the galaxy twice now, let’s go home,”

“Home?” Lance said and he huffed in disbelief “We can really go back?”

Shiro approached Lance and put a hand on his shoulder, “Yes, we can go home,”

He then heard a roar, in his head and in his ears, he turned around in disbelief as he saw Black shining and looking at him, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“She’s waiting for you” Keith said from his side.

“Thank you Keith, I know you looked after her well” Shiro said and looked back at Black

Is it you?

Black [agreed] back, this wasn’t an illusion, it really was the Black Lion having chosen to also come into this reality, one they could ride together once again into battle.

“Let’s do this!” With an excitement he hadn’t felt for a long time he went in his lion as so did the paladins in their original formation.

“Setting course for Earth, this is going to be a long road trip” Pidge said from her Lion.

“No, we are getting there today”

“What? Shiro are you insane?”

“Trust me, we must form Voltron and I’ll tell you a neat little trick I discovered while inside of Black’s consciousness”

“Super thrusters?” Keith said amused.

“Super thrusters indeed. Form Voltron!”

-

Earth was under attack, hundreds if not thousands of Galra fleet were already raining fire over the entire planet.

Shiro could only stare, is this what Adam saw?

“Shiro they are everywhere!” Shiro snapped out of it at the voice.

“Paladins, disband, Lance and Hunk go to the other side of Earth and start fighting back, Pidge, Keith, you reach out nearby, I’ll stay here in the Garrison and spread out to you, we need to cover as much space as possible, GO!” Voltron disbanded and Shiro was left to deal with the Galra attacking the Garrison, he turned to the ships just when a fighter exploded.

No!

That was a Garrison fighter, one where Adam died, why weren’t they falling back? Was Adam in one of them? Fear came from within him, he didn’t go through all of this to watch Adam die. A calm presence spread through his mind, it was Black, urging him to calm down and believe his work would not be in vain.

“Fine, I’ll trust you, are you ready to kick some Galra butt?” Shiro said and Black roared, just like old times.

The attack was vicious, one to a scale Shiro hadn’t seen before, the Garrison was defenseless and suffered a lot of damage but Shiro couldn’t call back the paladins, after all the same attacks were happening all over the globe. The battle was long and devastating but soon all the cruisers were destroyed.

“Paladins, your status” Shiro said.

“Clear”

“Clear”

“All clear”

“Clear”

“Good, come back to base” Shiro noticed the comms were eerily silent.

“Everything alright?”

“Earth, everything...” Pidge low voice began

“There’s harldy anything left, this attack... was real bad” Keith finally said what everyone thought.

“I know, come back to base, think of your families and how close you are to see them” That seemed like the trick since the paladins hurried back.

The particle barrier held still long enough and the main runways were clear, the lions finally landed as a group of people from the Garrison piled close to see them, it happened like Shiro remembered.

Pidge jumping out to meet her mother and father, Lance being smothered below a pile of relatives but what caught his eye was Hunk who also jumped straight to his parents arms, he remembered Hunk’s parents were being held prisoner, why where they here? He didn’t dwell on it since he much preferred the young paladin to be free of worry in this reality at least.

“Excuse me, excuse me, I know-, I need-!”

He knew that voice, he turned around and saw as the crowd parted and finally a sight he never thought he’d be able to see again.

Brown skin, eyes and hair, unmistakable glasses and behind them a shocked look.

“Takashi”

Shiro let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding, that voice, those eyes, exactly like he remembered, in that moment everything he did was worth just that sight, just that one look and that sweet sound of his name from that voice.

“Takashi wha-?” A million emotions traveled through his expression before he seemed to come to terms with whatever he thought “It doesn’t matter, you’re here!”

Adam ran to Shiro and he immediately opened his arms to receive all of Adam’s weight and closed his arms tightly around him, not letting go again, not letting Adam away from him, he felt real and warm and with a string of ‘Takashis’ on his ear, in that moment everything was perfect.

He could no longer hold his weight anymore with the sheer emotion of seeing Adam, holding Adam and just having Adam back, his knees gave in and Adam followed, not breaking their embrace for a single second.

“Adam!” Shiro sobbed “I missed you”

“I’ve missed you too”

“You’re here! It worked!”

“Yes I’m here, we are here”

The pain, the hardships, everything was worth it for this one perfect moment.

-

“The explosion we detected is coming from here but I see nothing” Pidge said from her lion.

“There’s nothing here but I can sense there’s lot of quintessence floating around” Allura said.

“Team, keep searching and investigating everything you see, this sudden peak of energy is near Honerva’s last known location, we must hurry, we don’t know what her plans are”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm aliiiiive!!!! This fic has been haunting me, it is technically short, probably 3 to 4 more chapters  
> To show you how long it's been, I wanted to publish this chapter for Shiro's Bday because his gift was getting everything he once lost back but life got in the middle and then a pandemic.  
> Also I will plead guilty and I was more into updating my other fic which was getting to the good parts so deeply sorry and hopefully I can end this one soon so we all don't keep waiting.  
> Thank you so much!


End file.
